Canadian school shooter identified as 18-year-old woman with mental health issues

2026-02-11 23:14:14

Summary
Shooting among the deadliest in Canadian history
Police revise death toll down to nine, including shooter, from 10 previously
Police say suspect acted alone

OTTAWA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Canadian police on Wednesday identified the person who carried out a deadly school shooting as an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues but did not give a motive for one of the worst mass killings in Canada’s history.

The killer, who police named as Jesse Van Rootselaar, died by suicide after the shooting on Tuesday in Tumbler Ridge, a remote community of 2,400 people in the Pacific province of British Columbia. Police revised the death toll down to nine, including Van Rootselaar, from the initially reported 10.

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On more than one occasion, Van Rootselaar had been apprehended under the provincial Mental Health Act for an assessment, said Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia. She once attended the school but dropped out four years ago.

“Police had attended that (family) residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect,” McDonald said.

Unlike the United States, school shootings are almost unheard of in Canada, and federal politicians initially struggled to maintain their composure.

“We will get through this. We will learn from this,” a visibly upset Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters.

Carney, who at one point looked close to tears, postponed a trip to Europe and ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days.

Hours later, legislators in the House of Commons observed a moment of silence and listened as a somber Carney said the killings had left the country in shock and mourning.

“It is a town of miners, teachers, construction workers - families who have built their lives there, people who have always shown up for each other there … Tumbler Ridge represents the very best of Canada,” he said.

McDonald said Van Rootselaar, who was born male but began to identify as a female six years ago, had first killed her mother, 39, and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home.

She then went to the school, where she shot a 39-year-old woman teacher as well as three 12-year-old female students and two male students, one aged 12 and one aged 13. Police recovered a long gun and a modified handgun.

Item 1 of 6 A police vehicle is parked outside a high school, the site of a deadly mass shooting in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada February 11, 2026. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier

**[1/6]**A police vehicle is parked outside a high school, the site of a deadly mass shooting in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada February 11, 2026. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Two severely injured victims remain in hospital.

“We do believe the suspect acted alone … it would be too early to speculate on motive,” McDonald told a press conference, saying police did not have information to suggest that anyone had been specifically targeted.

Several prominent world leaders sent messages of condolence. King Charles, Canada’s head of state, said he was “profoundly shocked and saddened” by the deaths.

SHOOTING AMONG DEADLIEST IN CANADIAN HISTORY

The shooting ranks among the deadliest in Canadian history. Canada has stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians can own firearms with a license.

McDonald said police had seized firearms from the family residence about two years ago but returned them after the owner, who he did not identify, successfully appealed the decision.

Van Rootselaar previously had a firearms license, but it expired in 2024. Canadians between the ages of 12 and 17 can obtain a minor’s firearms license after taking a firearms safety course and passing tests.

In April 2020, a 51-year-old man disguised in a police uniform and driving a fake police car shot and killed 22 people in a 13-hour rampage in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, before police killed him at a gas station.

In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 female students and wounded 13 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before dying by suicide.

“There’s not a word in the English language that’s strong enough to describe the level of devastation that this community has experienced,” said Larry Neufeld, a local provincial legislator.

“It’s going to take a significant amount of effort and a significant amount of courage to repair that terror,” he told CBC News.

Additional reporting by Maria Cheng in Ottawa and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Deepa Babington and Nia Williams

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David Ljunggren

Thomson Reuters

Covers Canadian political, economic and general news as well as breaking news across North America, previously based in London and Moscow and a winner of Reuters’ Treasury scoop of the year.

Ryan Patrick Jones

Thomson Reuters

Ryan is a breaking news correspondent based in Toronto covering breaking news, national affairs and politics in the United States and Canada.

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